Features

Student creates infographic for 2017 “Count Us In”

Written by Karen L. Bystrom

June 5, 2017

Results of the 2017 "Count Us In" point-in-time count of homelessness were announced by All Home last week. The sobering news, sensitively presented, included this infographic created for All Home by project assistant for the Project on Family Homelessness, Seattle University senior Mandy Rusch.

"This was a unique challenge for Mandy because we needed to begin working on the design several months before anyone had access to the data. It’s not an ideal situation for an infographic, but she handled it with professionalism and commitment to serving our partners,” said Catherine Hinrichsen, project director for the Project on Family Homelessness. “Mandy’s goal as designer throughout the project was to remind everyone about the people behind the numbers. She created a warm and personal design, including hand-drawn illustrations, conveying the humanity and urgency of the issue as well as the progress being made locally.”

From the announcement of the report: “This new count is the most comprehensive to date, and confirms that homelessness is prevalent throughout the county,” said Mark Putnam, Director of All Home. “People who are homeless want housing, and we are housing more people than ever. Yet the count confirms that more people are becoming homeless here. This is true wherever there is a severe lack of affordable housing.”

As part of Seattle University’s Institute of Public Service, the Project on Family Homelessness uses journalism, art and storytelling projects to help engage the community to make family homelessness rare, brief and one time only in Washington state. The oldest continuous homelessness advocacy project at Seattle University, the project was established in 2009 through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project was recently awarded a seventh grant from the Gates Foundation to continue its communications and advocacy work through 2018 including serving local partners in homelessness and housing advocacy

You can view work completed with advocacy partners, including Mandy’s popular infographics on student homelessness and last year’s similar infographic from the One Night Count, on the Project on Family Homelessness portfolio site.